I ran across an interesting article about cancer survival rates in a recent issue of Time Magazine. I’ve always had a vague idea about these things – e.g., prostate cancer has a relatively high survival rate, whereas pancreatic cancer has a very low survival rate – but I’ve never really had a good feel for the details.
The data below reflect average five year survival rates in the United States for cases diagnosed between 1996-2004. Note that the overall average is 66%, but there are many different types of cancer, and the numbers actually range from 5% to 99%.
Typical cancer survival rates
- Prostate cancer – 99%
- Melanoma (skin cancer) – 92%
- Breast cancer (women) – 89%
- Rectal cancer – 67%
- Kidney cancer – 67%
- Colon cancer – 65%
- Leukemia – 51%
- Ovarian cancer – 46%
- Brain cancer – 35%
- Stomach cancer – 25%
- Lung cancer – 16%
- Liver cancer – 11%
- Pancreatic cancer – 5%
Interestingly, the survival rate averaged across all types has climbed from 50% in the mid-1970s to 54% in the mid-1980s, and finally to the 66% noted above.
The importance of early cancer detection
It’s also worth noting that the stage at which the disease is detected is strongly associated with the survival rate. For example, when breast cancer is caught very early, the five year survival rate is nearly 100%, but that drops to less than 30% with “distant spread.”
Similarly, colon cancer has a nearly 90% survival rate when caught early, which dips to roughly 10% with distant spread and lung cancer has a roughly 50% survival rate when caught early compared to less than 5% with distant spread.
I think the lesson here is to get physical exams (speaking of which…) and to see a doctor if anything seems out of the ordinary.
Source: “A shot at cancer,” Alice Park, Time Magazine, 9/14/09
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